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After the owners failed to make their kitchen work, Mint Kitchens came to the rescue, creating this spectacular design.

It’s hard to believe that a kitchen like this was actually the last addition to an already finished, contemporary house. “The old kitchen was less than 10 years old; the quality of the cabinetry wasn’t bad but the kitchen wasn’t functional or aesthetically pleasing,” says designer Marzena Ciszak from Mint Kitchens, the company invited to design the space. The old kitchen had a sink in an island benchtop. “This split the only food preparation area into two small spaces, which was completely insufficient,” explains Marzena.

Although island benchtops are incredibly popular in today’s kitchen designs, the owners of the home actually desired continual bench space with no island. They had been finding this island design invited their children to chase each other around, which was becoming increasingly frustrating and unsafe. In fact, they had attempted to solve this years ago by replacing the island benchtop, sink and dishwasher; however, they still found that the design didn’t work.

It was decided that a whole new renovation was in order, so the owners of the home consulted with Mint Kitchens about a completely different design that ticked all the boxes.

“The most important goal was to increase the storage and bench space,” says Marzena. The new design incorporates plenty of both around the cooking areas and underneath the preparation area opposite. “To make this possible,” says Marzena, “the old window had to be replaced with a tall, slim one positioned centrally. We converted a linen cabinet that was located just outside the kitchen into a space that integrated an Electrolux freezer and Vintec wine fridge, making these two essentials easily accessible without taking up valuable storage space.

“Next on the list was the desire to create a kitchen that was designed to fit a white/grey colour scheme. The reason for the plain colour palette was to create a neutral space that would easily fit in with the rest of the living areas, existing furnishings and house features.”

Rich timber flooring existed throughout the whole living area and was continued on in the new kitchen to give warmth against the monochromatic tones. “We agreed to go with the crisp, white, glossy look with the large benchtop and, as we had already introduced stone, marble was also selected to complement and maintain a very natural feel,” says Marzena.

The feature of the kitchen is most definitely the tall marble wall that provides the façade for the wide benchtop. This taller element gives the ability to conceal the mainstays of the space, the toaster and kettle, and hide the sink at the same time. “It creates a wonderful visual punch,” says Marzena. Calacatta marble has again been used as the splashback and adds the texture and colour variation needed for such a vast use of white cabinetry.

It took many years to get to this point, but the owners knew that as soon as they hired Mint Kitchens their kitchen would become a space they could finally enjoy.